MP: Road accessibility crucial for development

ROAD accessibility is crucial for the economic growth and development of a district such as Maprik, local MP John Simon says.
Simon, who is Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, said this after he committed K200,000 towards rehabilitating a feeder road linking Albinama 1 to Albinama 2 and 3, in the Bumbita-Muhian local level government (LLG) area.
He said Maprik was a large district with varied geography and travelling from one LLG to another could take hours by foot.
Simon said he came across this road link during a visit to a cocoa nursery project in Albinama 3 recently.
He expressed concern at the condition of the feeder road and was determined to do something about it.
Simon said the Maprik district development authority (DDA) was focused on rehabilitating roads in the district in order to improve accessibility to support farmers of cocoa, vanilla and coffee to boost the local economy.
He said rehabilitating in Maprik would be costly considering its geography and size.
Simon said the DDA aimed to fix and maintain the majority of roads in the district.
Under the supervision of the acting Maprik chief executive officer (CEO) Joshua Himina major roads links in the LLGs including Yamil-Tamawi and Maprik-Wora had seen major maintenance works.
Meanwhile, Maprik town is currently undergoing a major change as its main roads are being rehabilitated.
The town road stretching from the Works junction to Triangle and on to Amaku River is set to be sealed.
This is the first phase of road rehabilitation for Maprik town and according to Himina, it cost K480,000 with the funding coming from the district services improvement programme (DSIP) funds with the second phase (the road from FM to new town) to follow.
Himina said the second phase would depend on promised funding from the East Sepik government – Governor Allan Bird had committed K500,000 to rehabilitate the road from FM to new town and on to Illingita AOG mission station.